Effective leadership is far less common than it should be. Fortunately, you can learn to be a better leader. It’s takes wisdom, intuition, confidence, and humility to be one of the best leaders.
To help you be a better leader, here are five key traits that many successful leaders have in common:
1. Be Available
Great leaders are effective communicators in every situation. Your employees need to feel like they can come to you for direction and guidance, and you need to be willing to provide all of the information they need in order to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.
2. Understand Your Employees’ Jobs
Great leaders understand the roles of every person on their team and why each job is critical to the team’s overall success. Great leaders value every member of the team, and their employees know they are valued and important.
3. Don’t Fingerpoint
Effective leaders take ultimate ownership and accountability. Rather than placing blame, they strive to uncover the gap and mend it so recovery is quick and success is achieved in the future.
4. Set an Example
The best leaders are role models for their employees. Everything they do is a reflection of how employees are expected to work and behave. From their dress, speech, work ethics, and so on, great leaders act how they want their employees to act.
5. Never Stop Learning
The day a person feels like she knows it all is a bad day. The best leaders understand they can never know everything, and there is always something new to learn. A great leader looks to her employees, colleagues, and superiors both within and outside of the office for inspiration and knowledge and shares that thirst for learning with her team.
Rule of Thumb
A great rule of thumb for leaders to follow is to never ask your employees to do something you wouldn’t do yourself.
What other characteristics do you think make a successful leader? Leave a comment and share your opinion about key leadership traits.
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on Business. She is a 30-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored a dozen books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).
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Great article. What spoke to me the most is that your employees need to know they are important and valued. They will willing do more and not just do it to be compliant.